JCL Studies in Comparative Law

Second Series, No. 8

The World Picture of Comparative Law

Every discipline perceives and constructs the world in its own way, structuring an aspect of reality and developing a research program and methodology with a specific vision that forms a special world picture of the discipline. The essays in this volume address the dialectics of the individual, national or other legal systems, the particular/common, and the (non)existence of the general/global, as the basis of a comparative law world picture, presenting for the first time its complex philosophical and historical vision. The view of law as a "national" discipline disregarded the law of nations and non-Western realities and the interaction of state legal orders with other normative orders. As shown here, a paradigmatic change is underway as awareness of this larger picture takes root.

The Editors

William E. Butler is the John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of Law, Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State University; Emeritus Professor of Comparative Law, University of London (University College London); Foreign Member, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine.

Oleksiy Kresin,